Climate Camp – Page 2 – AmeliasMagazine

Amelia’s Magazine | Smash the Piggy Piñata at the Annual International Banking Conference

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network
Photography by Amelia Gregory.

This morning I made an especially early start so that I could take a whack at a ‘piggy piñata’ outside the Annual International Banking Conference held in Threadneedle Street. Sometimes I think that I live just a little bit too close to the axis of financial evil that is the City of London, viagra buy but it sure makes it handy to get along to protests.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

In collaboration with the UK Tar Sands Network, Climate Camp London decided it would be a good idea to swing by this conference – attended by RBS head honchos Stephen Hester and Gordon Nixon – as a preclude to the main national Climate Camp, to be held somewhere near the headquarters of RBS outside Edinburgh in Scotland this summer. You probably don’t need me to tell you that RBS was bailed out by the tax payer and is now 83% owned by us – yet the bank continues to invest in the Alberta tar sands, the most destructive fossil fuel process ever – as well as funding UK based fossil fuel extraction projects such as open cast coal mines. Yes, open cast coal mines really are reopening up and down our countryside, ruining not only the landscape but the health and happiness of locals: except in the 21st century huge diggers are used to slash open the landscape, instead of sending men down into the pits. And we have no say in this. Now don’t that feel a little unfair? For this reason RBS is the main target for Climate Camp actions this year and especially at our annual summer camp between 19th-25th August.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

“Have a bash at the bankers,” we offered passers by as we swung at the rather impressive treasure box/piggy piñata with a not-nearly-as-resilient green plastic cricket bat. Many bemused bankers snapped up a copy of our Never Mind the Bankers paper, cunningly sold to them as a “Financial Times supplement” or “RBS newspaper” as they entered the venue, but the piñata piggy – despite the loss of it’s legs and head – was keen to hold onto it’s contents till the end. Will the RBS bankers keep flinging (our) dosh at fossil fuels extraction? Will they? Finally we were showered with… a batch of Oyal Bank of Scotland bank notes.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

But this was just a warm up. Will you be joining us in August? Right now local groups up and down the country are arranging travel up to Scotland, so do find yours and get involved. If you’re based in London and would like to find out more about how to get involved in Climate Camp here you can attend a Welcome to Climate Camp session this weekend. Join the Facebook event here.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

You can watch my qik video of the piggy bashing here and read more about the open cast coal mine at Merthyr Tydfil here – site of the Climate Camp Cymru last year. Find lots more about the tar sands all over my website… and check out the other amazing action that happened today… when activists from Liberate Tate paid a visit to the BP sponsored British Museum.

…which followed another Liberate Tate action at Tate Britain a few weeks ago…

Things be hotting up out there… don’t get left behind.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday July 13th, 2010 5:31 pm

Categories ,Annual International Banking Conference, ,BP, ,British Museum, ,City of London, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Camp Cymru, ,coal, ,edinburgh, ,Financial Times, ,Fossil Fuels, ,Liberate Tate, ,Never Mind the Bankers, ,oil, ,Piggy Piñata, ,RBS, ,Tar Sands, ,Tate Britain, ,Threadneedle Street, ,UK Tar Sands Network

Amelia’s Magazine | The 10:10 campaign launches

Graham Carter’s joyful prints reference many of the most loved images in modern culture: the characters from Star Wars or the eerie but manageable magic of Spirited Away. The artistic sensibilities stop these nostalgic influences from turning into twee: the gorgeously rendered digital art glows with vibrant colours and many of the works are made 3-dimensional with painstakingly applied wood veneers, find sale or cut-out perspex shapes that lend shadows to a noir city scene.

This is the kind of art you’d love to have in your own house (I made enquiries! Prices average at around £150). The small details show wit and add a lovely personal feeling to the prints: a towerblock soars above a city landscape but is made friendly by a pair of eyes and a winning smile. When you spot a tiny figure peeping out of the digital grass you fall in love with the world in the picture. Each picture tells a story that you can imagine going on far beyond the edges of the frame, like that of the little girl and her huge Samurai friend, pictured below.

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Amelia’s Magazine interviewed the artist to find out more.

AM: Tell me a bit more about the title of the exhibition, “East Meets West”.

GC: It was an intentionally open title really, to try and represent my current fascination with Eastern culture whilst also allowing me to continue experimenting with elements of early American design, which have been creeping into my work of late. I should point out that my work is never extensively researched (as you can probably tell) as I prefer to make things up – or put my own spin on things. The world as I would like it to be and not really how it is…
Towards the end of its development I wanted the show to almost be a kind of travel diary/scrapbook; a couple of recurring characters making their way from one city to the next (New York to Tokyo, via New Yokyo, a hybrid of the two). And in some pictures in the distance you can spot elements of previous images (something I always tend to do).

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AM: You are obviously inspired by screen culture (especially Sci Fi!) Could you tell me about why these influences appeal to you? The original influences are quite tech-y and macho but your works are really whimsical and beautiful, they remind me more of Hayao Miyazaki than Michael Bay.

GC: I’ve always loved sci-fi films so I guess it was only a matter of time before elements crept into my work. It’s largely the machines that fascinate me rather than the action. My favourite parts of the film are usually when the protagonists are just sitting around/hiding/waiting inside their pods/spaceships without the stress of battle!
I have been watching a lot of Miyazaki of late. He and Wes Anderson are my favourite film makers as they have created their own little worlds that seem to make perfect sense despite all the unusual happenings on screen.
I’m also a sucker for a robot.

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AM: Some of your works are printed on wood or made of inlaid wood. What is it about wood as a material that appeals to you? Is it very hard work getting the solid wood pieces manufactured? How are they made?

GC: A phase I am going through largely, but one I am constantly fascinated with. From getting one thing laser cut, it has opened me up into a whole new way of seeing my work and the possibilities are pretty huge.
The texture of wood appeals to me and also the ‘natural’ connotations. I love the idea that someone may have constructed a working robot from found wood for example. Wood also has that old-fashioned appeal. I’m more enamoured with the look of bygone toys and their clock-work components than anything sleek and soulless.
I worked with a company called Heritage Inlay on the laser cut images and the inlaid pieces. Usually I design them and they construct them. But in some cases I like to order the separate components and put them together myself as in the case of the 3 images composed of laser-cut perspex, silkscreen backing and screen-printed glass [see image below].

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AM: I loved the perspex “landscape” pieces. Is it very different creating something 3D to making a print?

GC: I treat the process the same way as a 2D piece really. They all start out life as a digital layered file on my computer so I can see roughly how they will work. I’m never entirely sure how the 3D piece will work until I have a finished one, due to unforeseen elements such as shadows running over parts of the background print etc. That’s why I find it an exciting way to work.

Graham Carter@The Coningsby Gallery
www.coningsbygallery.com
August 31 – September 12
30 Tottenham Street , London, W1T 4RJ

If you’d like to see an online array of Carter’s works, investigate e-gallery Boxbird.

When scouring the latest releases for something worthy of talking about, unhealthy an album opener of the primary school rhyme to remember Henry VIII’s wives, is going to catch your attention. Recently signed to Andy Turner‘s ATIC Records, The Witch and the Robot are a treasure trove of oddities waiting to assault and bemuse your senses with their first release ‘On Safari.’

Aforementioned opener, ‘Giant’s Graves’, introduces a theme that runs throughout the album of pagan chanting, psychotic percussion and bizarre lyrics. With a name check to philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas, in the following track, lead singer Andrew Tomlinson screams: “God is mackerel” against an array of fowl (as in bird) noises.

Standout track, and title for that matter, ‘No Flies On Me (Jam Head)’ is an example of the alluring world that the band create, rich in competing layers of sonic beauty. If you were wondering, it’s about wealthy golfers who employ a man to take the bait of flies by covering his bonce in the sticky stuff.

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Live performances are known to emulate some kind of terrifying children’s party with helium balloons, cream pies, fighting and bunting all playing a part. In addition to putting out the most unique blend of folk, psychedelia and prose heard this year, the band run a night where each punter is entered into a compulsory meat raffle. They explain: “We sometimes play surrounded by raw meat on stage. It’s referencing our own mortality, the fragility of life, it’s visceral, sexual even, but also it is nicely weird.”

At this stage, you’re probably wondering where a band of such peculiar entities are from… That picturesque, romantic stretch of idyll, the Lake District of course… That same region of the UK that has inspired the poems of Keats, Collingwood and Wordsworth to name but a few. This could perhaps explain the spoken word entry on ‘Sex Music(Beef on Music)’, which does narrate a meeting of the sexes but in a less romantic context than our nineteenth century forefathers. Their eccentric yet catchy sounds have caught the attentions of fellow Cumbrians and Amelia’s Magazine faves, British Sea Power and they were asked to open their festival in north Yorkshire.

If you can’t make your mind up whether they are performance art with access to a recording studio or actually have the intention of being a band at all, De-Nihilism should answer this for you; a sprawling rock track that transports you to the Arizona Desert, but there you’d most probably be wearing a silly outfit and singing a shanty.

This album is humorously fun yet dark and mysterious all delivered with a conviction and musicianship that compels another listen… “Divorced, beheaded, died/Divorced, beheaded, survived.” Just in case you’d forgotten.

Less of a protest than a gentle nudge, physician the aim of the 10:10 campaign is to sign members of the public up to a pledge to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. A star-spangled event at Tate Modern encouraged thousands to sign up to make this change. It was a very different approach from the grassroots events at the Climate Camp last weekend and had an entirely different goal: to get ordinary people to make small changes to save the world.

But hasn’t this message been preached for years with little result? I always refuse carrier bags at the supermarket but this does not appear to have yet halted global warming. Support in reducing my consumption of resources in all parts of my life is very welcome and, patient having signed up, cheap I’m going to take up some of the tips on offer such as going vegan three days a week. I’m a lazy environmentalist: I care and I know what needs to be done, but I find it hard not to fly, as many people do with relatives who live abroad. I get confused as to whether this cancels out all of my efforts on the recycling and public transport front. There are many of us out there, and still more who find it hard to get motivated when the problem seems so big.

Campaigns like 10:10 often draw mixed responses from the green movement. Many of those who have informed themselves about climate change and have made meaningful changes to their lifestyle will be puzzled by the half-measure of asking people to take one less flight a year. It’s frustrating to see 10% held up as a magic figure when in reality we need to be drastically reducing our use of resources to avoid being the most reviled generation in the history of mankind. We don’t need to switch off a light every now and then; we need to stop using freezers and eating meat. These aren’t sacrifices that the majority of people are willing to have prized from their cold, dead hands, so instead they do nothing. That’s why it is necessary to have well-promoted and unintimidating ventures like 10:10, because otherwise instead of 10% it will be 0%.

However, with all the best intentions, it’s not realistic to rely on individual decision-making and a small change in some lives won’t make enough of a difference. International politics and the Western economic model, which views increased consumption and growth as the only positive outcome, make it very hard for governments to lead the way. And if they did try to radically change the way the average Briton lives it would be hard for us to stomach. But we can’t have our cake and eat it. There are very difficult decisions to be made and at the moment they are being taken by a vanishingly small minority. It can’t be one lightbulb: it must be everyone’s lightbulb, every night, forever.

Both Climate Camp and 10:10 show that green campaigning can be given a high profile in the media through well-designed websites and using new modes of communication such as Facebook and Twitter. The mainstreaming of climate change awareness can only be a good thing, and it’s important to normalise making big changes in lifestyle. Living a “green” life needs to be seen as less expensive and we need to cultivate a better array of things to do in Britain that don’t require a car or a credit card. What is required is a paradigm shift in the way the majority of the population lives and going green needs to be seen as “just something you do”. Soon enough, owning more than one car will become embarrassing rather than a status symbol, but by the time the sea is lapping at everyone’s front door, it will be a little late to argue about who was the best environmentalist in 2009.

It can be done. It just needs to be done at a slightly quicker rate. Going green needs to be cheap and cheerful and to be made easier psychologically. Efforts like 10:10 help with this, but at the end of 2010, the bar needs to be set a little higher. We need to knock off another 10% in 2011, and then another. Asking for more all in one go won’t work but perhaps turning up the heat a little at a time will.

Written by Satu Fox on Thursday September 3rd, 2009 6:22 pm

Categories ,10:10, ,Climate Camp, ,environmentalism, ,green, ,Tate Modern

Amelia’s Magazine | The Great Climate Swoop 2009: A retrospective

The Jerwood Drawing Prize is back again for another year and 2009’s hopefuls won’t disappoint. The longest running annual exhibition has been going since 1994 and is dedicated to promoting and rewarding excellence in contemporary drawing in the United Kingdom.

Spaced over two rooms, more about the first piece I come to is by artist Kate Russo, side effects whose two works sit on top of one another. The first, shop “Dissolving Symmetrically” and the second, “The Key Is Repetition”. Both pieces are done on graph paper, working in the confines of grids. Amongst the mass of verticals and horizontals, Russo has rendered an extremely intricate network of minute coloured squares. Using coloured pencil and graphite she has systematically filled in alternate boxes to eventually build up a repeat pattern that you can only distinguish from a distance. It is clear that time and dedication has been taken to carry through this task she has given herself. It is interesting because the outcome of this drawing was predetermined by the system she chose to follow to colour in the squares. As I look closer the tiny dots almost look as if they’re vibrating, bouncing off one another like molecules in an atom. Or perhaps they even appear to be working ants, busying themselves around a nest. This is quite a satisfying piece of art to study, especially if you have a thing for mathematics, rules or systems.

The work of Catherine Nicholson is quite arresting as my gaze moves over to the next piece. “After The Storm” is in pen and ink on a large canvas. It is the most intrinsically rendered drawing of a collection of apparently decomposing branches, leaves and foliage. On closer inspection you see that Nicholson must have used an extremely fine nibbed pen to achieve the level detail, from the veins of the fern leaves, the cracking of the bark on the branches to the areas where the leaves are starting to decompose. At first this may appear to be a very well executed study of nature but the title makes it take on a new meaning. “After The Storm” makes you think that these are the debris of a natural disaster maybe. Where they all once growing peacefully somewhere in an undisturbed habitat? Perhaps now ripped from their surroundings and discarded in the dirt by the storm.

Another two drawings by Japanese artist, Yumi Shimada are displayed to my far left. One sitting on top of the other, “Self Portrait 2008” is drawn in black ink on paper, showing an unknown formless being in the centre of each frame. The undeterminable origin of this creature, no visible facial features and its forthright position on the page is quite confrontational. The surface is made up of dark, black cross-hatching to give a sense of a thick, dense mass. The first drawing shows it slumped over the length of a small table, almost as if it can longer take it’s own weight. The second is far more disturbing, depicting the creature sending itself through a mangle and turning itself into a black, viscous liquid on the other side. The scene described is actually quite disturbing. It appears that it is performing this act of it’s own will. I am brought to mind the ‘stink-spirit’ character, Okusare, in Spirited Away – a sloth-like, sluggish being. I try to work out the connection between the two pictures. There is perhaps a sense of despair in the first, which may consequently lead to the macabre finality of the second. Shimada says that the portrait shows her squeezing negative thoughts through the mangle, somehow disposing of them. The world that this creature inhabits is not one I recognise. The influence from Japan and the Japanese fantasy genre is apparent. The ominous nature of it and connotations of the dark under-belly of somebody else’s imagination does not make for particularly comfortable viewing. At the same time, I have conflicting feelings that it is strangely compelling. A morbid curiosity to look at something you know will scare you.

The final artwork that I come to is also my favourite. The most reserved of all the pieces on show in size and yet the most monumental in its stature, Samuel Kelly’s “Tokyo Aero-abstraction 7” is quite awe-inspiring. If I had thought the previous drawings had a good eye for detail, it doesn’t compare to this. Drawn on a tiny square of paper, dimensions probably no more than 4cmx5cm, it appears to show an aerial view of a city or road system. Even standing at a normal distance away, it just looks like a grey block of colour. You are invited to stand much, much closer – my face is literally inches from it. Only then can you really see a tiny network of roads and buildings and appreciate its complexity. It is so tiny in fact, that I can only imagine that Kelly would not have been able to draw this with a pencil nib any finer than the point of a pin. I have to say, without delving any deeper into its underlying meaning, it is easily impressive enough as it is. The modest frame seems mammoth in comparison. It allows it so much space, emphasizing even more it’s miniscule proportions. There is something quite impressive about creating work on a microscopic level, like the artist who makes objects to fit on the head of a needle.

There are many more notable examples of drawing on display today, even in a relatively small gallery space; you could spend hours soaking in the extraordinary talent showcased. This is the last week of the exhibition’s run, so head over soon to avoid disappointment.
Last weekend a thousand protestors descended on Ratcliffe-On-Soar power station to protest against the continued use of coal power, see which is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions.

The weeks leading up had been filled with outreach and preparation with neighbourhoods, thumb groups and individuals working tirelessly towards making the Great Climate Swoop a monumental event.

The action was a huge success for the movement, more about fences were scaled, camps were made, banners dropped, a railway blockaded, and the power station was effectively seiged for 24 hours. With one of the prominent aims to create a social movement, the Climate Camp also showed it is a force to be reckoned with, as hundreds of people were prepared to use direct action and face arrest to make their point.

The weekend didn’t have the best start with the police using preemptive measures to arrest an activist from Leeds and charging him with conspiracy. Plane Stupid were also called and threatened with arrest if they attended the protest, which was a sign that the police were not even prepared to allow people to think about taking meaningful action.

Undaunted, on Friday night and Saturday activists from all over the country arrived at and around Ratcliffe. As the sun rose and the helicopter circled, huddled groups came across each other in woods and the surrounding area. Giving each other a nod and a grin at the impending action, people from the two blocs, ‘Take back the power’ and ‘False Solutions’, then made their way to the muster point.

At the same time, a few miles away, the bloc ‘False Solutions’ was being created with hundreds of protestors, as well as a critical mass of cyclists arriving at Nottingham train station.

At one o’clock everybody, organised, excited and nervous, swooped to the power station. Hundreds of protestors descended from the woods on mass, splitting up at the fences, some tearing, climbing and pulling down the barriers.

A handful of activists even managed to get over several fences and into the power station before they were arrested. With E.ON spending 5 million on new electric fences weeks before, as well as bringing out an injunction to give the police powers to arrest anyone they felt like, it was never going to be an easy task.

A procession with banners, bikes, chants and noise rallied further around and made their voices be heard. Second swoops, rallies, makeshift camps and actions continued throughout the day and the £600,000 police force were kept on their toes whilst using riot gear and letting dogs off their leads to tackle the protestors. Dog bites only added to the range of injuries and concussions inflicted by the police. Medical care was very slow to come, if ever. Apart from the one police injury where a helicopter was quickly scrambled and zoomed off to create a cleverly crafted PR campaign for the London based media sitting in their offices.

A cat and mouse game continued through the evening and into the night, with 300 protestors managing to camp overnight, keeping a vigil on the power station. They were kept in spirits by Veggies who did an amazing job of providing food and drinks to the camp.

The movement is being replicated all over the world, with actions in Australia, that we covered here at Amelia’s Magazine, as well as in Denmark and beyond. Climate camps are being set up all over the world creating grassroots movements essential to combat the rise of climate change by putting pressure on governments and corporations.

The recent back out by E.ON from creating two new coal power stations at Kingsnorth as well as the end to plans for a 3^rd runway at Heathrow, which were coincidentally both venues for past Climate Camps, show that we can really make change.

At the weekend activists from around the world also met in Copenhagen to finalise plans for similar actions during the UN climate talks taking place in December. These talks are seen as the stage for social movements worldwide to show a precedent to governments around the world that we need to take action into our own hands. The Camp for Climate Action will be there, so should you.

Written by Adam S on Thursday October 22nd, 2009 2:26 pm

Categories ,action, ,banner, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Change, ,coal power, ,Copanhagen, ,Direct Action, ,dog bite, ,E-On, ,False Solutions, ,fences, ,helicopter, ,injury, ,march, ,Pictures, ,police, ,protest, ,Ratclife-On-Soar Power Station, ,Ratcliffe On Soar, ,social movement, ,swoop, ,The Great Climate Swoop

Amelia’s Magazine | EAT course 2011: Earth Activism Training at Landmatters in Devon, UK

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EAT participants 2009 at Landmatters in Devon. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Way back in the misty days of summer 2009 I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate on the EAT course, tadalafil which stands for Earth Activist Training: planting the seeds of change.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Designed to combine spiritual, earth based philosophies with the more fervant strand of environmental activism, the EAT course is held several times a year in America. It doesn’t come to the UK that often – so this is the first year it comes back since 2009, and it will once again be hosted by Landmatters, a super inspiring low impact Permaculture co-operative in Devon. The course is always co-hosted by the amazing Starhawk, or Star to friends, a well known and highly revered activist and white witch.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory Starhawk

Starhawk gets stuck in.

It’s A permaculture design certificate course, grounded in earth based spirituality, and with a focus on organising and activism. What this means that it is a jam packed two weeks of intense training – learning all the ins and outs of Permaculture through hands on experiential learning. On my course we were trained by the head of the Permaculture Association, Andy Goldring, who will once again be co-running EAT this year. He was an extremely joyful and bouncy tutor who managed extremely well when faced with awkward questions about meat farming (from staunch vegans) and I learnt a huge amount of truly fascinating stuff about the way in which we can best live with the earth.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory Andy Goldring
Andy Goldring teaching on EAT.

Permaculture provides an incredibly solid basis for any ongoing work, be it gardening, art activism, general life organisation, social planning or community-wide projects. For instance an EAT course inspired artist and activist John Jordan to set up the Laboratory of Insurrectory Imagination, or LABOBFII, as an arts organisation based on the principles of permaculture. The beautiful and radical Landmatters was set up by six people who met on EAT and were inspired to live the change they wanted to see in the world. The first Climate Camps were planned on Permaculture principles to ensure that tents, facilities and neighbourhoods were placed in the most harmonious way possible.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Lessons take place inside a spacious yurt.

Activism is a key component of the course, and during my time at Landmatters I met many other people who were working on Climate Camp alongside those who work with No Borders, queer rights and urban land projects… to name just a few. It was inspiring to listen to people’s tales whilst enjoying the amazing vegan food at every meal time, sometimes so different and yet so very similar.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Many activists don’t really spend any time considering the spiritual side of their engagement with the planet – and even though the opportunity to learn from Starhawk was one of my top reasons for wanting to go on the EAT course, there were some on my EAT course who were very resistant to her rituals and chants. But needless to say by the end of two close weeks together everyone felt differently, with even the hardest of activists softened around the edges, and all of us more grounded and connected to the reasons we feel the urge to engage in our individual choices of activism.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Rooh Star of Landmatters was one of our guest teachers.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Some of the amazing dwellings at Landmatters.

Taking cue from Jon Young‘s teachings we also spent time alone at our sit spots each day, developing our nature awareness. I chose a spot that overlooked the wonderful woods that surround Landmatters, and every day looked forward to reconnecting with the shifting patterns. A time to relish in the fast wash of my life.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

The EAT course was undeniably hard work, but so incredibly fabulously worth it. You can read some inspiring testimonials here.

If you fancy applying for the next course, due to take place between August 20th and September 4th 2011, then you don’t have long left to apply RIGHT HERE – only until the end of April. You will need to define your particular activism and talk passionately about your plans to spread the ideas that you will learn. This really is a chance in a lifetime and I urge you to take it!

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

The full cost of the course is expensive, but EAT does its best to offer many partial or whole scholarships, depending on need – which in these cash strapped times is greatly to be admired. To ease funding problems this year’s course will be partly crowd-funded so if you can’t go yourself but you understand the importance of the work the EAT course does then please do donate at IndieGoGo. The hard working volunteer organisers need all the help they can get to ensure that those who are underfunded are still able to attend this year. People like me!

Permaculture, Magic, Social Change – nothing could be better, as EAT demonstrates.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday April 27th, 2011 4:35 am

Categories ,2011, ,activism, ,Activists, ,Andy Goldring, ,Climate Camp, ,Co-operative, ,community, ,Crowd Funding, ,Devon, ,E.A.T., ,EAT, ,EAT course, ,Indiegogo, ,John Jordan, ,Jon Young, ,LABOBFII, ,Laboratory of Insurrectory Imagination, ,Landmatters, ,Nature Awareness, ,No Borders, ,Pagan, ,permaculture, ,Permaculture Association, ,Queer Rights, ,Rituals, ,Rooh Star, ,Sit Spot, ,Star, ,Starhawk, ,White Witch, ,Witch

Amelia’s Magazine | The Great Climate Swoop – the mass action of the year!

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, drug ask the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, sildenafil for Amelia’s Magazine, sales an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

I wake up around 7.30, have breakfast while checking my emails, then I shower and get ready for the day. Mornings are spent writing and catching up with my Google Reader. In the afternoon, I do admin and PR stuff, although I now have an assistant to help me with this, so I can focus on editorial in the afternoon. I have a pretty strict routine, because I work from home while looking after my 2-year-old daughter, it can get quite strenuous! I have worked for myself for many years now and I love the freedom it gives me, but I also find that I work about 4 times more than when I worked in an office! I work roughly from 7.30 in the morning to 6, but my brain only stops working when I sleep!

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

While in Paris, I worked as a journalist for many years and when I moved to London I had to start from scratch so I took on jobs that were interesting but straying from journalism. It was a personal blog to begin with, with ramblings about my life, pop culture to fashion & style.

My blog has been running for almost two years now and it has become my full time job and I am really proud of it. Mademoiselle Style came quite naturally as I was giving style tips on the blog and receiving emails and comments asking for more tips and advice. I thought it would be nice to take all this into real life. I love the internet, but sometimes you feel quite disconnected from the real world. Also, style advice is quite personal, so you can’t beat face to face when it comes to it.

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

I am divided about this… On one hand, I think it hasn’t really changed people’s attitude to fashion that much. We all say that it has, but really, if you walk down Oxford street, you still see people carrying loads of bags, shops are buzzing and it really doesn’t look like recession.

On the other hand, it might have helped making people more aware of over consumption in general and possibly drive people away from the high street and towards vintage, charity shops or young designers etc. At least I like to think so. In a perfect world, that would be the positive effect of the Credit Crunch, people would be more discerning about clothes and would stop the high street bulimia.

What do you love about vintage fashion?

I like challenges! It starts with the challenge to find something you really love and suits you. Then when you find said item, it is the challenge to make it your own. It can be difficult to wear an item of clothing that carries a lot of history without being swamped by it. If you find something you love that becomes “you”, then you’ve pretty much made it!

I like the obvious story behind vintage clothes… I like imagining what happened to the people who owned the items before me, I like making up stories about why they made a particular dress (if it is handmade). Vintage clothes are often more durable, I know it sounds like a massive cliché, but clothes were made much better in the past.

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

I think when you are strapped for cash, it is actually the best time to invest in something durable, like style advice in order to learn how to shop better. That’s the idea behind MademoiselleStyle.

The idea is to learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

I don’t want to push people to buy clothes all the time, I want them to learn what suits their style and what will help them feel like themselves. When I see people for consultations, I take clients shopping so they can try stuff on, but I have no particular interest in them buying things. My most expensive/comprehensive consultation is £350, but will leave you feeling knowing exactly what to wear. Having discovered that most of it is already in your closet whilst knowing what pieces you need to buy to complete your style.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

I like London Fashion Week because it’s short and sweet and has a lot of “fun” designers like Eley Kishimoto, Luella and Giles. Paris Fashion Week strikes me as more conservative. I went there when I was younger to see one of Hervé Leger’s first shows (Hervé is a friend of my former stepmum) but apart from that I don’t really have much experience of it other than as an outsider; Fashion wise in general, I am much more of a London fan!

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

Let me start from the beginning: when I heard that quite a few bloggers were invited to LFW this year I thought “oh great, some familiar faces”. But actually, once there, apart from a few familiar faces (who had been invited to the previous seasons as well), I mainly found myself facing a lot of poseurs and hangers-on. I did see LOTS of bloggers at shows (mainly at the ON|OFF ones) but I am yet to see some solid coverage, with good photographs. I saw really poor coverage of shows, photos with the date stamp still on them, camera phone pictures. It just looked as if nobody cared about the collections and the designers’ work, they only seemed to care about the bullshit surrounding fashion (the celebs in the front row, the outfits of the fashion week goers etc).

I went there to work and to get some content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

The whole thing made me ashamed for the blogging “community” and eager to separate myself from it to tell you the truth. Mademoiselle Robot is my full time job and I have worked very hard as a journalist/editor that I don’t really consider myself a blogger, more of an online editor. I know it sounds poncy as to most people, as a blog is a blog, but especially after LFW, I feel I need to differentiate myself from Fashion Bloggers. I went to LFW before this season, as my website was professional enough to earn me credentials and invitations to shows before inviting bloggers became the thing of the moment.

Favourite shows –

Without a doubt House of Blue Eyes… The show was absolutely amazing. It brought life and fun times to an otherwise fairly dull Fashion Week. There was gold and glitter, disco music, happy faces all around. I was completely mind blown by it. The collection itself was not necessarily something I’d see catching on and spreading into the mainstream come Spring, but the show was fabulous.

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen, so I am biased!

I also really enjoyed Bora Aksu’s interpretation of the rock chick trend that seems to be absolutely everywhere still and Eley Kishimoto was of course flamboyant and totally spot on. Luella’s collection was once more totally drool inducing.

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

The denim look leggings paired with the accented shoulder jacket is not one everyone can rock. It’s been everywhere and it is an attractive silhouette to some, but please, take a good look at yourself in the mirror (not the magic mirror) before you step out of the house wearing this tricky trend…

I have quite defined shoulders already, so instead of wearing giant shoulder pads and looking like an American Football Player, I will opt instead for a more feminine, softer shoulder accent, ruffles.

My advice is, if you want to buy a new coat for the Winter, do it now! And buy vintage. Vintage coats are more durable, made of better, warmer fabrics and most of the time they are cheaper than their high-street counterparts.

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, visit this site the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, pills for Amelia’s Magazine, an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

I like the challenges! It starts with a challenge to find something that suits you and that you really love. Then when you find it, it is the challenge to make it your own. It is difficult to wear an item of clothing that carries a lot of history without being swamped by it. If you find something you love that suits you and that becomes “you”, then you’ve pretty much made it!

I like the obvious story behind the garments side of vintage clothes… I like imagining what happened to the people who owned the items before me, I like making up stories about why they made a particular dress (for handmade stuff). Vintage clothes are more durable, I know it sounds like a massive cliché, but clothes were made much better in the past

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

I think when you are strapped for cash, it is actually the best time to invest your money in something durable, like style advice, to learn to shop better. That’s the idea behind MademoiselleStyle.

I don’t want to push people to buy clothes all the time, I want them to learn what suits their style and what will help them feel like themselves. When I see people for consultations, I take them shopping so they can try stuff on, but I have no particular interest in them buying things. My most expensive/comprehensive consultation is £350, but you will leave feeling like you know exactly what to wear, having found out that most of it is already in your closet and knowing exactly what pieces you need to buy to complete your style. The idea is to learn to shop, learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

Let me start from the beginning: when I heard that quite a few bloggers were invited to LFW this year I thought “oh great, some familiar faces”. But actually, once there, apart from a few familiar faces (who had been invited to the previous seasons as well), I mainly found myself facing a lot of poseurs and hangers-on. I did see LOTS of bloggers at shows (mainly at the ON|OFF ones) but I am yet to see some solid coverage, with good photographs. I saw some really poor coverage of shows, photos with the date stamp still on them, camera phone pictures, anything goes basically. It just looked as if nobody cared about the collections and the designers’ work, they just seemed to care about the bullshit surrounding fashion (the celebs in the front row, the outfits of the fashion week goers etc). I went there to work, to get some good content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

The whole thing made me really ashamed for the blogging “community” and very eager to separate myself from it to tell you the truth. Mademoiselle Robot is my full time job and I have worked very hard for so long as a journalist/editor that I don’t really consider myself a blogger, more of an online editor. I know it sounds poncy as to most people, a blog is a blog, but especially after LFW, I feel like I need to differentiate myself from Fashion Bloggers. I went to LFW before this season, as my website was professional enough to earn me credentials and invitations to shows before inviting bloggers became the thing of the moment.

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen though so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

The denim look leggings paired with the accented shoulder jacket is not one everyone can rock. It’s been everywhere and it is a pretty attractive silhouette to some, but please, take a good look at yourself in the mirror (not the magic mirror) before you step out of the house wearing this tricky trend…

My other advice is that if you want to buy a new coat for the Winter, do it now! And buy vintage. Vintage coats are just more durable, made of better, warmer fabrics and most of the time they are also cheaper than their high-street counterparts.

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, approved the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, for Amelia’s Magazine, an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

I think when you are strapped for cash, it is actually the best time to invest your money in something durable, like style advice, to learn to shop better. That’s the idea behind MademoiselleStyle.

I don’t want to push people to buy clothes all the time, I want them to learn what suits their style and what will help them feel like themselves. When I see people for consultations, I take them shopping so they can try stuff on, but I have no particular interest in them buying things. My most expensive/comprehensive consultation is £350, but you will leave feeling like you know exactly what to wear, having found out that most of it is already in your closet and knowing exactly what pieces you need to buy to complete your style. The idea is to learn to shop, learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

Let me start from the beginning: when I heard that quite a few bloggers were invited to LFW this year I thought “oh great, some familiar faces”. But actually, once there, apart from a few familiar faces (who had been invited to the previous seasons as well), I mainly found myself facing a lot of poseurs and hangers-on. I did see LOTS of bloggers at shows (mainly at the ON|OFF ones) but I am yet to see some solid coverage, with good photographs. I saw some really poor coverage of shows, photos with the date stamp still on them, camera phone pictures, anything goes basically. It just looked as if nobody cared about the collections and the designers’ work, they just seemed to care about the bullshit surrounding fashion (the celebs in the front row, the outfits of the fashion week goers etc). I went there to work, to get some good content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen though so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, find the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, rx for Amelia’s Magazine, an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

The idea is to learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

I went there to work and to get some content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen, so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, prescription the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, sales for Amelia’s Magazine, information pills an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

The idea is to learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

I went there to work and to get some content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen, so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

Fashion Scout now in it’s 7th year, cialis 40mg has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box fresh talent.

Their four course “Ones To Watch” was a menu of gothic grandeur, tea stained Venuses, spiny beaded suits and eco constructivism. The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and conceptual designer Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters must have provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s collection of black leather creations.

I was glad that the slow pace of the models allowed deep detail gazing of the Snakepits of leather laces crowned with furry antlers. The designs were reminiscent of Ebony tree nymphs crossed with the witch whose poisoned apple sent Snow White to slumberland.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, wove, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars with wire and boning supports.

Vintage beauty stylists from Nina’s Hair Parlour wrapped the life size foam antlers in hair, instantly elevating the looks to showpiece status. Mitanovski kept the production of the designs local by sourcing materials from local manufacturers and having his accessories, shoes and bags all produced in Belgrade.

This dark knight has no limits on creativity, the performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

The sweet compliment to Mitanovski’s rich palette was Hermione DePaula’s hand painted chiffon washes of nude, caramel and ivories. These washes displayed the body through delicate shapes, created through the frayed and tightly clustered burgundy chiffon collars over bodysuits and billowing trousers. Her pieces possessed sensual magnetism, that could be attributed to DePaula’s muse being the anatomical Venus’s that were said the origins of this extremely feminine collection.

The inspiration for the collection started with the ultra realistic life-sized wax models used in the teaching of medicine. These dolls were often made with real hair and wore ornamental jewellery. DePaula was inspired by these wax “Venus’ multi-colored interior with removable parts that reveal the mystery of the inner workings of the female body.” She took the idea a step further by dubbing the collection “Las Venus” in a nod to our tabloid fascination with celebrity and those papers’ knack for catchy nicknames with which to brand our those fallen stars.

Dean Quinn, whom we spotted at CSM’s BA show this spring brought his graduate collection of Blade Runner inspired beaded suits ( i implore you to fight the urge to think of Elvis onesies right now) in film noir blacks and whites.

Sharp satin suits with the occasional exaggerated shoulder have little domino tracks of baguette beads running up and down them. The porcupining beads were, as much great art is, an accident of miscalculation. When threaded too tight the little beads are forced to stand on end. A delicate thing to control but it does so to great effect.

Wildcard designer Ada Zanditon was all haexagons in a geometric bleu blanc rouge of cocoon coats, high waisted trousers and cropped tops. Her beehive inspired collection carried the theme through heavy cottons, silks and folded organza petals.

The conceptual designs are not surprising, when considering that Ada Zanditon has previously worked for Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh. However Zanditon remains steadfast in the eco couture ring (see Amelia’s Magazine coverage of The Ethical Fashion Fair in Paris for details on Zanditon’s commitment to sustainable fashion).

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Fashion Scout now in its 7th year, buy has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch” provided a menu of gothic grandeur, cialis 40mg tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

The slow pace of the models allowed for detailed gazing at the leather laces crowned with furry antlers. The designs were reminiscent of Ebony tree nymphs crossed with the witch whose poisoned apple sent Snow White to slumberland.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

Vintage beauty stylists from Nina’s Hair Parlour wrapped the life-size foam antlers in hair, elevating the looks to showpiece status. Mitanovski kept the production of the designs local by sourcing materials from local manufacturers and having his accessories, shoes and bags produced in Belgrade.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

A sweet compliment to Mitanovski’s rich palette was Hermione DePaula’s hand painted chiffon washes in nude, caramel and ivories. The body was displayed through delicate shapes created by frayed and tightly clustered burgundy chiffon collars over bodysuits and billowing trousers.

The pieces possessed a sensual magnetism that appears in accordance to the inspiration for the collection. DePaula started by looking atthe ultra realistic life-sized wax models used in the teaching of medicine. These dolls were often made with real hair and wore ornamental jewellery, DePaula was inspired by these wax “Venus’ multi-colored interior with removable parts that reveal the mystery of the inner workings of the female body.” The idea was taken a step further by dubbing the collection “Las Venus” in a nod to tabloid fascination with celebrity.

Sharp satin suits with the occasional exaggerated shoulder were detailed with domino tracks of beads. The porcupine beads were, as much great art is, an accident of miscalculation. When threaded too tight the little beads are forced to stand on end. A delicate thing to control but a great effect.

Wildcard designer Ada Zanditon produced haexagons in a geometric bleu blanc rouge of cocoon coats, high waisted trousers and cropped tops. Her beehive inspired collection carried the theme through heavy cottons, silks and folded organza petals.

The conceptual designs are not surprising, considering that Ada Zanditon has previously worked for Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh. However Zanditon remains steadfast in the eco couture ring (see Amelia’s Magazine coverage of The Ethical Fashion Fair in Paris for details on Zanditon’s commitment to sustainable fashion).

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Fashion Scout now in its seventh year, physician has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch” provided a menu of gothic grandeur, page tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Fashion Scout now in its seventh year, try has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch” provided a menu of gothic grandeur, order tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Fashion Scout now in its seventh year, about it has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch” provided a menu of gothic grandeur, advice tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, viagra the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, sildenafil for Amelia’s Magazine, price an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

The idea is to learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

I went there to work and to get some content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen, so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

Mademoiselle Robot is the Parisian journalist who relocated to British shores to write a hugely popular fashion blog. Full of style advice and celebrity interviews, remedy the blog has subsequently spawned another venture; Mademoiselle Style. Services range from a credit crunch consultation on how to look good for less to a lunch time session at your desk or a full blow introduction to vintage fashion.

Can you describe, for Amelia’s Magazine, an average day in the life of a professional blogger?

What inspired you to start and how did the blog develop into the style service?

What do you think the impact of credit crunch on what people desire from fashion is?

What do you love about vintage fashion?

People are pretty strapped for cash at the moment, why is investing in a styling session with you a wise move?

The idea is to learn to know yourself and invest rather than whip out the credit card as if it was some sort of comfort food.

As a Parisian living in London, are you a London Fashion Week fan, or does Paris Fashion Week hold a special place in your heart?Any highlights this year?

Did you notice a big blogger community presence at LFW this year? Do you think this is changing the way fashion is covered in the press?

I am sorry if I ramble about this, but it actually made me really angry for the whole of LFW. It is an issue that really matters to me.

I went there to work and to get some content about new season styles for my websites.

(Photo Credit: Matt Bramford)

Favourite shows –

Another favourite of mine was Peter Jensen. The presentation had a magical atmosphere and the clothes were beautiful. This time totally wearable too! I love Peter Jensen, so I am biased!

Top tips for autumn/winter 2009?

The denim look leggings paired with the accented shoulder jacket is not something everyone can rock. It’s been everywhere and it is an attractive silhouette to some, but please, take a good look at yourself in the mirror (not the magic mirror) before you step out of the house wearing this tricky trend…

Fashion Scout now in its seventh year, cheap has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch” provided a menu of gothic grandeur, unhealthy tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers culled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkoric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada

Fashion Scout now in its seventh year, information pills has once again brought us a well balanced diet of young innovators and box-fresh talent.

Ones To Watch provided a menu of gothic grandeur, tea stained Venuses, beaded suits and eco constructivism.

The designers coralled for this presentation are Serbian Marko Mitanovski, celebrity autopsy inspired Hermione DePaula, CSM grad Dean Quinn and Ada Zanditon.

The ancient Serbian forests and dark folkloric characters provided a bottomless source of imagery for Marko Mitanovski’s black leather creations.

According to Mitanovski the outfits were the result of a 15 strong studio team who ruched, beaded and laced scaled-up versions of Elizabethan collars shaping them into skirts, capes and collars.

The performance was set to the sounds of (his favorite) a Nirvana track, reworked by his friends’ quartet.

Check out Amelia’s Magazine April 09 interview with Ada
We have been gathering, sale preparing, joining with hundreds of others and almost ready to swoop for the most exciting mass action of the year.

Illustrations by Michael Maitland

Coal power is the biggest source of carbon emissions, with over 200,000 people dying each year from climate change alone, the government still isn’t taking it seriously. With only a one seventh of the amount bankers received in their bonus packages being put towards green stimulus projects shows we need to take action into our own hands to get the government to do more.

The Great Climate Swoop is happening this Saturday the 17th and 18th October; the plan is to take over Ratcliffe-on-soar coal-fired power station for at least 24 hours. There has already been a wave of international protests against coal power stations this year from Australia (an action we covered at Amelias magazine) to Denmark and we aim to make our action even bigger and better.

With the recent back out by E.ON on creating two new coal power stations at Kingsnorth, as well as the end to plans for a 3^rd runway at Heathrow which were coincidentally both venues for past Climate Camp shows that we can really make change.

It is an exciting time to be involved in activism with the climate change issue really heating up it is time to get involved and be part of the movement.

With a group of volunteers spending months working hard for the swoop to be an success, the plan is in place and it is sure to be an engaging action that will spurn many new activists as well as pushing the debate on for no coal power. Maps are available to download and a text message service has been set up to keep everyone informed about what’s happening on the day.

Local neighborhoods meet up regularly and have organized a range of activist cut-price buses from around the country to descend to Nottingham at the end of the week. There really is no excuse not to be there.

The action has been split into four blocs, and each offers different objectives to suit every activist. FOOTSTEPS TO THE FUTURE will get to the main gate and create a vision of a better future, TAKE THE POWER BACK mission is to get to the control room and take back the power, FALSE SOLUTIONS will go to the coal pile and expose the false solutions and CAPITALISM IS CRISIS is the decentralized bloc which means affinity groups can take there own actions. The power station is going to be inundated with young and old, students, weathered activists and all in between to show we want to kick start massive transition to a low carbon future and we don’t see coal power as relevant in today’s world.

If you’ve left sorting out transport with your local group too late, don’t worry just get to Nottingham train station for 10am this Saturday and join the hundreds of protesters there ready to swoop. There will also be bike blogs setting off from Leeds on the 15th, and Sheffield on the 16th and Nottingham on the 17th all leaving from the train stations at 10am, the critical mass will even have boom pedal powered tunes to spur you on and bloc any of those high vis vehicles on the day.

Written by Adam S on Tuesday October 13th, 2009 5:18 pm

Categories ,bike bloc, ,bloc, ,Climate Camp, ,coal power, ,critical mass, ,E-On, ,kingsnorth, ,nottingham, ,protest, ,Ratcliffe-on-soar power station, ,swoop, ,text message, ,The Great Climate Swoop

Amelia’s Magazine | EAT course 2011: Earth Activism Training at Landmatters in Devon, UK

E.A.T.course-July-2009-0598
EAT participants 2009 at Landmatters in Devon. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Way back in the misty days of summer 2009 I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate on the EAT course, tadalafil which stands for Earth Activist Training: planting the seeds of change.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory Starhawk

Starhawk gets stuck in.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory Andy Goldring
Andy Goldring teaching on EAT.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Lessons take place inside a spacious yurt.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Rooh Star of Landmatters was one of our guest teachers.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Some of the amazing dwellings at Landmatters.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

The EAT course was undeniably hard work, but so incredibly fabulously worth it. You can read some inspiring testimonials here.

E.A.T.course-July-2009-photography by Amelia Gregory

Permaculture, Magic, Social Change – nothing could be better, as EAT demonstrates.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday April 27th, 2011 4:35 am

Amelia’s Magazine | The Hung Parliament spells serious change for our government.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells
Democracy Village. All photography by Amelia Wells.

Parliament Square is currently home to the Democracy Village; a few tents, visit this site treatment a couple of marquees and a whole lot of passion. It was set up on May the First and will be there… until people leave, or for some, until the war is over. I went down on Election Day, since I couldn’t vote anyway having failed to register, to see what was going on at the Festival of Peace. I found a vibrant and close knit community of anarchists, doing what they colourfully could to challenge the establishment, promote democracy and bring the war that we’re still at to an end.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

Banners were being painted and erected as I arrived, the most striking declaring ‘Capitalism Isn’t Working’ against the backdrop of Big Ben. Others encouraged peaceful feelings, demanded ‘TROOPS OUT’, and my favourite, ‘If Voting Changed Anything, It Would Be Illegal’ – a good point when you consider quite how opposed the establishment are towards those actions which do make changes, such as occupations, mass protests, swoops and other forms of direct action. In the name of protecting our security, of course. Strangely, the police sniffing around the set-up didn’t make me feel more secure.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

The atmosphere in the Village was peaceful and playful, in spite of the threat to national security which we represented. Peace-mongering music was played and danced to, the lyrics encouraging politicians not to go to war and to love their fellow man, with some Rage thrown in to sate the more militant. I watched people paint their shoes and bags with Ghandi’s most famous quote while a girl called Cloud handed out homemade fairy cakes.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

Eventually, the open mic picked up, starting with a chap standing up to remind everybody why we were there and what we stood for when he asked whether politicians represent our views, or if we do? He also pointed out that being peaceful is not equivalent to being apathetic. Anything but, in fact, in a country run by the power and conflict hungry, seeking peace is downright subversive. He was rightfully applauded and whooped for his impassioned speaking, after which a gent who had been filming the event and interviewing the Villagers stepped up to spout well-crafted words of poetry in the exact spirit of peace we need – calling out the hateful on their actions and encouraging us to make a difference. Next up, a red nosed, bewigged gentleman incited us to love, respect and welcome one and all. His motto; one world, one society.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

The most controversial speaker was a mouthpiece for the Tories who encouraged us anarchists to register as such in return for mind-altering substances. A few Villagers didn’t seem to have a prior understanding of satire and became quite riled at the ‘Tory’s’ opinions; one lady began shouting about the Village being funded by oil and arms companies… and the Israelis. After a calming down period, he suggested that we find a child and ask its favourite colour, informing us that he was voting Lib Dem because his son likes yellow, and voting isn’t going to make a difference to how the country is run.

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

Herein lies my gripe with actions such as these. It’s so easy for activists embroiled in occupations and demonstrations to believe that the means to change are obvious to all, but the man-in-the-street being told that his vote is irrelevant will only feel more powerless, if they pay any attention at all. The act of occupation is an act of power – reclaiming public space – but is standard passer-by going to stop and ask what they can do instead of voting, or keep passing by and shake their heads at foolish hippies?

Democracy Village Amelia Wells

The true message is that we can take the power back through direct action, occupations, protests, swoops and marches. Camps like these do force people to consider, if only for the moment it takes to read a banner, that our political system lies to us about the importance of our vote while trying to make us believe it is the sole extent of our political voice, and therefore reducing our power and influence over them (long banner, eh?) . However, most won’t and don’t wander into places like these and ask what they CAN do. As the Tory said, ‘I’m preaching to the converted here’. The outreach didn’t seem to be reaching out. An occupation in Parliament Square is the perfect opportunity to reach hundreds of people every day, not just with a message, but with suggested actions which everyone can take to make those changes we so desire and need.

The Village is going on indefinitely, and there are also events this weekend at Kew Bridge Eco Village and Transition Heathrow as well. Get down there to Kew for some face painting fun, or get along to Grow Heathrow and get stuck into their work weekend.

Illustration by June Chanpoomidole

While Spring turns to Summer, generic London Fashion Week AW10 may fade in our memories, stomach but the designers that drew us in certainly won’t. One such designer that caught my eye at the Esthetica exhibition was ‘Makepiece’. The concept and techniques used were so intriguing that we couldn’t resist interviewing the owner, Beate Kubitz.

Why did you choose to focus on eco-fashion? Why is it so important to you?
Clothes are important to me. I think what you’re wearing tells other people a lot about you, who you are and how you feel about yourself. I don’t like the idea that something that makes me look great was complicit in damaging the environment or the people who made it. You don’t want your favourite t-shirt to be dripping with pesticides, cause a water shortage or to be sewn up in a sweat shop. But unless you’re very careful, it might be.
There’s something wrong with the latest trend ‘buy, wear, chuck’ mentality – it’s a bit neurotic and it’s definitely bad for the planet. We try and make clothes that are significant to the women that wear them and that they can feel really good about.

How did the Makepiece brand begin?
I’ve been keeping sheep for seven years now, met Nicola six years ago and Makepiece is now five.
We’re located in Todmorden, a small town in the Pennines. It’s beautiful and has a long history of wool production so it feels like the right place to be doing it. The landscape is scattered with mills built in the nineteenth century – but wool was being spun and woven in cottage industries and then transported to market or the Piece Halls on ponies travelling on packhorse tracks which still crisscross the moors.

What techniques do you use in your clothing?
Knitting – with some knitted felt. The important thing is stitch design – Nicola is the queen of 3D stitches that really sculpt the garments and give them their drama as well as their details. She uses hand operated knitting machines which give her scope to develop a stitch then apply it in loads of different ways so that it works on the body. Our knits tend to be more three-dimensional because they’re designed like this. Also, all our knits are fully fashioned (knitted to shape rather than cut out of a piece of knitted cloth) which looks better and wastes less yarn.

What materials do you use in your clothing?
Wool – some of it undyed brown wool from our Shetland sheep, others fine Bluefaced Leicester wool, from the UK flock and English alpaca and mohair.

Illustration by Becky Glover

What was the inspiration behind your most recent collection?
Romance, definitely. Nicola got married in the summer and the sense of romance seems to have seeped into and permeated the collection. There are lots of ruffles, little frills, translucency and volume – but not just ephemeral prettiness, really lovely things that you can adapt and keep forever.

Do you have a favourite piece in the current collection? If so, what is it and why?
There are a few things that are really adaptable – like the Manifold cardigan which has a ribbon tie which can be used to ruche it up to bolero length or left loose so that it’s a long, elegant cardigan. Our little Foxglove shrug also works as a summer scarf and the Manifold dresses can be styled in loads of ways so they let the wearer use her imagination.

What are your future aims for the Makepiece brand?
We’ve really been growing our website so that people all over the country can buy our clothes but we’d like to be in more stores, for the people who are less confident with internet shopping or who like to try things on.

Is it harder or easier to sell eco-fashion? Is there a lot of competition?
Because we make everything in the UK it’s more expensive to manufacture so that means that we have to do a good job in helping people understand.

What is so individual about the Makepiece brand?
Style, humour and our flock of Shetland sheep. We go from mud to mascara in a twinkling of an eye – never forgetting the roots of our fashion but always looking for beauty and grace in our designs. We try and be sustainable throughout the business – from the way we farm the sheep with the lowest impact possible (we’re just about to become part of a scheme to help protect twite – which is one of the most endangered British bird species) to buying green energy for the studio, recycling everything we can, using public transport as much as possible (I took our last collection to London Fashion Week on the train from Yorkshire – in the most enormous trunk – it was quite a feat), I even do some of the farming on my bike.

The good thing about wool is that it is more or less a by-product from sheep farming so it’s not using up land or resources that should be in food production – and on upland farms like mine creating good grazing and farming sheep is one of the few productive things you can do (I tried vegetables once, but it was not a success!). Compared to cotton, for example, which uses over 15% of the pesticides used in the world and vast amounts of water – so much that the irrigation of cotton has shrunk the size of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, wool is farmed much more sustainably (particularly in the UK where we have to look after the land as well as the animals and the government monitors your impact on the environment).

Because we make everything so locally we avoid the CO2 emissions from shipping things vast distances. We also employ people in our community and use a local dyer who has to comply with European dyeing regulations – the REACH standards; no azos, no heavy metals and irritants, effluent is stringently monitored so no emissions into the water system, and so on.
We also only use recycled and sustainable paper in our labelling and packaging.

You can find the brand at: www.makepiece.co.uk and selected eco-fashion stores.

Ballot Box Colourbox
Illustration by Matt Thomas.

So today’s the day: the day that I sprung out of bed at an ungodly hour with only one thing on my mind. Who will be our next prime minister? I’ve not been so excited about a general election since 1997, sickness when I memorably got so drunk dancing on the tables in a north London pub that I thew up in the gutter. Of course back then I was excited for a very different reason. Yes, buy hands up, I was one of many who voted Blair in – after years of Tory rule we were excited about a future under Labour. Oh how very chastened we now are 13 years later.

Solving Hung Parliament Val Woodhouse
Solving Hung Parliament by Val Woodhouse.

In 2010 it seems I am not the only one who has gotten swept up in the election. Even before the tales of queues at the polling stations I had a gut feeling there would be a high election turn out this year. Okay, so in my local Tescos the regular cashiers were overheard saying “Are you going to vote?” “Nah, they’re all the same aren’t they?” but when I walked through Camden yesterday I overheard lots of people talking about voting. It seems that we’ve finally managed to reawaken our democratic spirit.

Illustrations by Colourbox.

I think this can be attributed to a few things – the Leaders’ Debates on television have increased popular interest in politics and Twitter allows for lots of interesting conversations, but there’s more to it than that… We are now so thoroughly fed up with the current system that we’ve collectively become hungry for change. And I’m not talking the kind of rhetorical change that Cameron espouses every time a camera is pointed in his direction. I’m talking serious, deep systemic change. Most people have been complacent for so long for only one very good reason: like the cashiers in Tescos they don’t feel that their vote makes the blindest bit of difference.

creaturemag_hang parliament
Illustration by Creaturemag.
GordonBrown_GarethAHopkins
Gordon Brown by Gareth Hopkins.

And so, whilst the big party leaders have been spinning the same old shit about how we should avoid a hung parliament at all costs because what we most need now for our country is stability or the markets will fail (big bloody boohoo) it seems that for many voters this has been like a red rag to a bull. Not even copious riot porn from Greece has phased us. Okay we’ve said: bring it on. We want serious upheaval! Nobody I have spoken to has feared the result we now have; instead we’ve positively hoped for a hung parliament precisely because we may finally see some changes to our electoral system. Of course, I’m as thoroughly baffled as the next person when it comes to the many forms of proportional representation, and I know the argument that PR could lead to as many representatives of the BNP in government as there could be Greens, but frankly that doesn’t frighten me. Our current “democracy” quite clearly doesn’t work and so something else that better represents the wishes of voters has got to be worth giving a go.

informationisbeautiful
I love this clever graph from Information is Beautiful, showing up the glaring inadequacies of our current system.

Illustration by Colourbox.

I’m worried, of course, about what will happen if Cameron forces a Tory led government on us without sufficient recognition of the electoral reforms so many of us want. But actually I don’t really *fear* it – I think that if he does ignore the clear wishes of the voters then there will be widespread unrest and direct action of the kind that we saw just a glimpse of last night at polling stations across the country.

POLL Station Riots- abigaildaker
The Polling Station in Sheffield Hallam, illustration by Abigail Daker.

I called in late to my polling station in Bacon Street just off Brick Lane, and there was no one to impede my progress to the ballot box. However I was lucky, and people up and down the country are quite rightly furious that they were unable to vote thanks to a higher than predicted election turnout and antiquarian voting methods which have allegedly shocked even our visiting developing world adjudicators. I was as incredulous as ever. “You mean you don’t need to take my polling card as proof I am me?” It is utterly nuts that we don’t need proof of identity to vote. Next to me a boy, surely not a day over 15, was pushing his papers into the box. Who was he voting for? Just days ago a huge amount of voter fraud was uncovered in my constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow. In fact, it was uncovered on my own street – visible from my studio window is a building in my estate that allegedly houses 18 Bengalis, all registered for a postal vote.

melsimoneelliott

Illustrations by Mel Simone Elliott.

In demonstration against our fraudulent system the Whitechapel Anarchists got together to spoil their ballots with great fanfare in Altab Ali Park, the Space Hijackers took their campaign bus on the road with the banner “Voting Only Encourages Them” and the Democracy Village is camped out in Parliament Square. There’s definitely a faint whiff of revolution in the air. That or the right to vote in a more democratic way.

caroline-lucas-election-2010-antonia-parker
Caroline Lucas by Antonia Parker.

Despite this unrest, I was absolutely ecstatic to hear that Caroline Lucas has become the first ever MP for the Green Party in the district of Brighton Pavilion. I met her when we did the first Climate Rush on Parliament in 2008 and I’ve been keeping my fingers and toes crossed that she would win this seat for some time now. If some form of electoral reform goes ahead there’s the thrilling prospect of yet more Greens in Parliament to represent my views. In the meantime, there’s always a nice bit of Direct Action to force change far more quickly than our government seems capable of. Climate Camp is targeting RBS this year. We look forward to making a big impact on our corrupt financial systems, whether or not change is decreed from on high.

carolinelucas_currentstate
Caroline sees green by Currentstate.

Brighton-lazaroumterror

Illustrations by Lazarou Monkey Terror.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday May 7th, 2010 5:53 pm

Categories ,Abigail Daker, ,Antonia Parker, ,Bethnal Green, ,BNP, ,Brick Lane, ,Caroline Lucas, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Rush, ,Colourbox, ,creaturemag, ,Currentstate, ,David Cameron, ,Direct Action, ,Electoral Reform, ,Gareth Hopkins, ,Greece, ,Green Party, ,Hung Parliament, ,Leaders’ Debate, ,Matt Thomas, ,Mel Simone Elliott, ,parliament, ,politics, ,Proportional Representation, ,RBS, ,Riots, ,Tescos, ,Tony Blair, ,twitter, ,Val Woodhouse

Amelia’s Magazine | E.ON’s early christmas surprise

If you try to describe this to someone (which you shouldn’t, this web sales don’t give anything away), doctor medications you will sound like you are conjuring from memory a nonsensical and fantastical dream; not something remotely tangible that actually happened in a 25-minute journey through a Shorditch warehouse.

Enter the ride and find yourself wheeled through 15 distinct scenarios with over 70 artists acting out micro-performances. “Designed to mentally and visually astound”, check; “leaving you overwhelmed and exhilarated’, check and check; and finishing the ride “in a totally different emotional state from the one you were in when you embarked on the journey”, most definitely true: utterly elated, mesmerised, and psychologically discombobulated.

The You Me Bum Bum train represents a new branch of experimental live art where the line between performer and audience is not just blurred, but utterly turned on it’s head; interaction is integral to the experience, and how far you take this is up to you. It’s creators Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd, intend to strip individuals of decision-making, giving passengers the would-be ordinary experience of somebody else’s shoes. You are left with fleeting slices of alternate realities, one moment you might be a drummer, the next a translator (I really don’t want to say much!). It’s real human experience through the prism of the utterly surreal, and it will take you some time to reclaim your grasp on the two, a most marvellous and novel experience.

The venue is essential to the experience, and they describe Cordy House as their dream venue, lending itself to the most ambitious event they’ve held yet.
There isn’t much time to go, and I whole-heartedly recommend it as an unforgettable experience. It runs every Saturday from now until the 20th of December between 7pm and 11pm.

Hip Parisian fahion and electro label, buy Kitsuné, what is ed are fast becoming as well known for their associated music as they are for their fashion. In fact, there is a clear cut three-way divide at Heaven tonight: scenesters, dressed for the fashion blog photographers collide en masse with those who know Kitsuné for the music and are quite unprepared for the additional rooms full of said scenesters, and with the regular Heaven clubbers, used to G-A-Y Camp Attack on Friday nights and probably the most bemused of everyone here.

Within the four rooms there’s a frustrating mix of real djs and acts like Autokratz, whose Pet Shop Boys go big beat set was a joy to behold and left me humming ‘Stay The Same’ for the rest of the night. Hearts Revolution, Punks Jump Up and Kitsuné house band Digitalism all turned out in force to impress and did so, although at times the acts felt a little repetitive. Alas, alongside these quality acts, we also got a number of vanity djs, including various models and boutique owners, which all blurred into the same set as the night progressed and seemed to play to rooms full of people aiming to get to the bar and move on.

It transpired that the ‘Don’t Panic’ room was the place to be. Inspired by K-Tron, blasting bass heavy No-Wave, they held me and the room in near divine rapture. The highlight of the night however, was Matthew Stone who dragged us back to 1985 via The KLF, his effortlessly sublime musical compass taking us on a seemingly random adventure, fitting perfectly with the tone of the night. There were some true high points tonight, but Kitsuné are probably best enjoyed via one of their compilations than live, based on tonight’s evidence.

Global Day of Action is a direct action environmentalism initiative that started in 2005 Global Climate Campaign to focus world attention on the anthropogenic effect that humans are having on global warming.
Actions take place on this day to coincide with a Climate Change convention; a meeting of world leaders from 189 nations, viagra dosage that meet every year to discuss climate change.
We have the listings for the actions taking place on the 6th in London, viagra 100mg for a list of other cities actions click here.

Global Day of Action
6th December 2008
This will be the Saturday midway through the next round of UN Climate Talks and our best chance to influence the decisions of delegates ahead of the critical UN talks in 2009 at which a post-Kyoto treaty agreement will be decided.

LONDON

Climate Bike Ride 2008
Assemble 10.30 am Lincolns Inn Fields for a mass bike ride around Central London joining up with the National Climate March at Grosvenor Square (see next listing for National Climate March info)
The three stops on the route are:
-Outside Greenergy, 198 High Holborn – for an agrofuels protest organised by Biofuelswatch
-Outside E.On 100 Pall Mall – for a speaker on NO NEW COAL
-Outside the Department of Transport – for a speaker on sustainable transport
Everyone welcome; decorate your bikes, bring whistles, bring music!
Want to help out for this action? Contact Jeremy Hill on 07816 839883 or jeremy.hill1@btopenworld.com

National Climate March and Global Day of Action on Climate
The march starts at 12noon at Grosvenor Square and will move via Carlos Place and Mount Street to Berkley Square and Berkley street to Picacadily, Picadilly Circus, Lower Regent street, Pall Mall and Cockspur street to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to Parliament Square.
We will bring the UK issues of Aviation, New coal and Biofuels to the streets of London, along with a call for more investment in renewable energy, more energy efficiency and more green jobs.
Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).
Contact: 020 7833 9311
www.campaigncc.org

There will also be an After-Party in the Synergy Centre from 5.00 pm till late.

The March on Parliament has four main themes –
1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion.
2) NO new coal – no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent
3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels – with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply.
4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs – a “Green new Deal”
Come with your own banners, costumes on one of these themes and join up with others pushing that theme……

The March on Parliament for the Climate marks the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and we make our demands on the UK government in solidarity with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.

We need the government to act now on climate, to stop building coal-fired power stations and new runways – and to begin the renewable energy revolution. We need a tidal wave of people outside parliament to make them act to stop climate catastrophe now! Be part of that tidal wave, be there! Next year may be too late.

for more information:
http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/ – for a list of cities and actions!
www.campaigncc.org

BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular
6th – 7th December, St Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix Road, Euston, NW1 1TA
craftacular-uk@bust.com

BUST is a magazine devoted to the female. Providing an unapologetic view of life in the female lane, they break down stereotypes! Based in the US and established in 1993, the magazine addresses a variety of different issues within pop sulture, including music, fashion, art & crafts and news.
Editor-in-Chief, Debbie Stoller, decided to call the magazine BUST, because it was “aggressive and sexy and funny… It was a title that could belong to a men’s porn magazine.”
For Women With Something To Get Off Their Chests!
Click here for the Christmas Craftacular’s Facebook Page

Jumble Fever
Under the bridge on Beck Road, E8
Saturday 6th December
Midday-4pm, Entry £1
A fabulous jumble sale with a boogie twist! There will be a great deal to see and do and buy.. See you there!

ETSY
An online shopping bazaar; Etsy is a cross between eBay and Amazon with a humble handmade twist. Launched in June 2005 by Robert Kalin, for sale Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, the site has grown to be incredibly popular, with tens of thousands of people selling their handmade goods (90% of whom are women!).
As Christmas draws nearer and greener, we have chosen our favorite handmade things to inspire your presents list.
www.etsy.com

pleated%20clutch.jpg
“The Kelsey”; a pleated clutch in paisley mocha
This handmade clutch is one of many adorable bags created by GraceyBags; get in touch through etsy.com to custom order a clutch and choose from a rainbow of fabrics.
Featured is ‘The Kelsey’ in a paisley mocha print on the outside in greens, blues, pinks, yellows and browns. The inside has been sewn from a silky brown fabric and the bag closes with a small magnet.

Recycled Journal – handbound
Find a lovely selection of hand bound recycled books by Rhonda; bookbinder and book artist.
This particularly wonderful journal is made with a variety of recycled scrap papers ranging from large envelopes, posters, junk mail, blank paper, lined and graph paper, covers from old sketch books, old maps, discarded photocopies, misprints from the computer printer to paper bags.
Perfect as an art journal, the book is covered with an old map of the world, the one pictured above showing the islands of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
There are 256 pages (when you count both sides of each sheet). The pages are handbound using green and brown linen threads, visible on the spine in 4 rows of chain stitches.
The book size is approximately 4″ x 4¼” and 1″ thick (or 10.5cm x 11cm x 2.5cm).

French Bulldog cotton tote bag

This adorable cotton tote is the perfect carry-all for any occasion. BellaBlu Designs signature French Bulldog silhouette has been cut from Heather Bailey‘s ‘Sway in Brown’ Pop Garden print and appliquéd to this cotton canvas bag. It is 100% 10 oz. cotton, measures 15 x 13 x 3 inches and can be customized with most other dog breeds.

TREEFORT
http://treefortkids.myshopify.com

We’ve also had a browse round treefort.myshopify.com, for some gift ideas for those of you with little ones in your life!

Dreamlets Dolls
These cute little creatures would make an adorable gift this season, and as a product that gives 1% back to Artworks, Bridges to Understanding , or Poncho, they’re doing a lot more than making a loved one happy! The dolls come in a variety of shapes and colours, each with their own quirky personality. You are also able to choose which organization will benefit from your gift by registering your doll online.

Nikki McClure’s Mama & Baby Things
Treefort also sell many of Nikki Mcclure‘s prints, books, cards, and calendars. Nikki McClure creates complex, yet natural designs by cutting away from a single piece of black construction paper with an x-acto knife. Her works are printed on 100% Recycled, 100% Post-Consumer Waste, Processed Chlorine Free paper that was manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy. Her work is printed by a small family-owned press in Portland, Oregon, US- and uses soy-based inks.

Kids On Roof “House”
is made of Eco friendly-100% recycled cardboard and is 100% biodegradable. These houses are the perfect gift for creative children, as they’re meant to be decorated and personalised! (see below for examples from treefort) Kidsonroof donates 5% of its profits to specific Unicef projects; €24,000 has now been collected for the Unicef project for building better, small-scale housing for HIV/Aids inflicted orphans in Russia.

Beyond Retro Christmas Party!

This evening Beyond Retro is throwing it’s annual seasonal gathering – in both it’s shops, viagra buy the original Cheshire St warehouse and new sibling store in Soho – from 6pm – 8pm, there’ll be lots of exclusive goodies for you to browse through and they’ll even throw in some mulled wine and mince pies. Good times.

Made In Clerkenwell

This evening and all weekend, the Clerkenwell Green Association open their studios for Made in Clerkenwell, an event that showcases the work of over 70 designers they support through providing them with studio space, mentoring and business advice to help them create their work.

The fruits of their labors are exhibited and available for purchase, so you can hunt out that unique Christmas gift and buy all kinds of original and creative wares – ranging from fashion designs to jewellery, accessories, textiles and even ceramics.
What makes this shopping experience so different is that you can mingle with and chat to the designers and find out about their craft, inspirations, working method, becoming a designer, anything you want to know! So pop down, get a great gift and support new designers.

Open 6pm to 8pm, Thursday 27th November 2008 and
12pm to 6pm on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2008.
£2.50 entrance – free to the under 16s.

It’s no secret that Brooklyn’s the place to be for smart indie pop these days, view but look a little closer to home and you might be surprised. Take tonight’s superb support acts, advice for example. First up is Pens, erectile a cute lo-fi local trio who, despite playing to only a handful of people, put on a wonderfully frantic and ramshackle performance – think Karen O‘s kid sisters gleefully bashing at snare, guitar and synths.

Fellow Londoners Chew Lips are up next and are nothing short of a revelation. The threesome cater in captivatingly melancholy electronic music and boast a bona fide icon-in-waiting in singer Tigs; she prowls and creeps around the venue, all black bob and wide eyes, unleashing powerful vocals and jumping on the bar to serenade us, while the boys whip up a glitchy synth and bass storm in the background. ‘Solo’ is the band’s set-closer and an undeniable highlight – scuzzy and danceable yet strangely sad, it will be one of your anthems of 2009, no question.

This bunch are hard to follow, but Telepathe just about manage it. Dave Sitek-produced debut ‘Dance Mother’ is on the way in January, and recreating its majesty live is clearly still a tricky undertaking for the Brooklyn duo. They do their best, unleashing a stream of cluttered soundscapes, layered harmonies and clipped rhythms, and while the effect is hypnotic at times, barely a word is uttered between songs – resulting in a distinct lack of atmosphere. This could of course be due, in part, to the fact that they are playing to a room full of typically disinterested Shoreditch types. Whatever the reason the performance falls a little flat, until final effort ‘Chromes On It’ that is, its spine-tingling beats waking the crowd from its stupor and climaxing with speakers shaking and half the band hanging from the ceiling as the hysterical throng down the front excitedly punch the air. It’s just enough to convince us that we’re not quite prepared to give up on Telepathe as a live proposition yet. More like this please.
Nuclear: Art and Radioactivity
discount -4.064941&sspn=16.764146, visit this site 39.418945&ie=UTF8&ll=51.524712,-0.079694&spn=0.008598,0.019248&z=16&g=E1+6PG&iwloc=addr”target=”_blank”>Nicholls and Clarke Building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, Spitalfields, London E1.

‘Half-life’
Chris Oakley, 2008
High-definition video, 15 minutes

‘The Nightwatchman’
Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou, 2008
Installation

The Nicholls and Clarke Building hosts an exhibition that explores the changing perceptions of nuclear power. In our rapidly deteriorating climate, the effects of nuclear development from the past have come to haunt us. ‘The Nightwatchman,’ by Simon Hollington and Kypros Kyprianou, captures this disturbing predicament.

As we entered the installation there was something immediately unsettling about it. A board-meeting table situated in the centre of a large dilapidated storeroom indicated recent activity, and as we crept further through the exhibition space there was more evidence of some night watchmen. But they are no where to be found…

Together with the film ‘Half-life’ by Chris Oakley, there was a sense of being caught in a crossfire of two different eras: the naïvely optimistic 80′s and the knowledgeable cynicism of the present day.

The film showed a series of paradoxical images of nature vs. technology, and through it we were reminded of how our idea of what is progressive has been turned on it’s head.

If you’d like to have something of yours across the chests of music aficionados throughout the country, viagra you might like to apply for this. 100% music, cheap 100% recycled paper (well done), sildenafil Bearded Magazine is preparing for the re-launch of the printed magazine on January 29th, and they’re throwing in a t-shirt as well.

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When it came to deciding what should go on the front of said t-shirt, they mumbled gibberish into their beards and drew blanks, and so they’ve put the task out to you the reader to help them out. In fact, they might be so filled with indecision that there could be four winners, so better chances for you! Have a look at the criteria and send in a design soon, you have until the 15th of December.

The Wellcome Collection’s new temporary exhibition is entitled ‘War and Medicine’ and focuses on the individual human consequences of war rather than the overall statistics of death and destruction that impersonalise and almost glorify military combat and which we are most often presented with. Soldiers are heroes when they die for their country but uncomfortable representatives of horror when they return wounded and disfigured.

Installation artist David Cotterrell‘s film, sales specially commissioned for the exhibition, salve attempts to rectify this. Covering three walls of a darkened room, more about the film shows wounded soldiers, with varying degrees of injury, being loaded onto a flight back to England from Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The only soundtrack is the constant hum of the plane’s engine, an eerie backdrop to the calm, efficient activity taking place on screen. There is an unsettling disjunction between our inclusion in the scene through the way it is presented to us and the alienness of the sight before our eyes. This slightly dreamlike atmosphere helps separate the artwork from the realms of documentary photography and helps us understand the confusion of this homeward flight, which we are told in the information outside, is often only partially remembered by the soldiers.

What is most striking about this piece is the individual humanity behind the uniforms of the men and women depicted. On the left are the walking wounded with a variety of arm slings and facial injuries being tended to by medical staff and waiting patiently for their journey to begin, on the right, more distressingly, a person is carried in on a stretcher, connected to breathing apparatus. It is heartbreaking to realise that although most of these people will probably survive, and so not register in the public consciousness, they will have been scarred for life both physically and emotionally. I began to see them as people beyond whatever my personal attitudes to their profession and the war they are fighting in was.
A harrowing counterpart to this work is Cotterrell’s written diary, where he describes with civilian horror, the daily minutiae of life amongst the medical staff in Camp Bastion. The exhibition’s mission statement is to explore the dichotomies in a society that is simultaneously developing ever more sophisticated means of destroying life and protecting it. The stalemate futility of this situation is given a human face by Cotterrell’s work.

David Cotterrell is featured in issue 10 of the magazine, out shortly.

Hurrying through the lights and sounds of Soho, stuff the words ‘bloody hell it’s cold’ rattled my skull. I was heading to see the Canadian singer and illustrator Chad VanGaalen, this known for rarely leaving his basement. In this weather, who would blame him?
Once inside Borderline I was able to thaw out and to take in the cosy surroundings. Kindly folk in chequered shirts patiently waited as they sipped Guinness. But there was something odd about this fresh-faced crowd. Moustaches, I realised. There were loads of them.

It’s Mo-vember, apparently. The time of year for all socially conscious gentlemen to grow out their fluff to raise money for testicular cancer. ‘That’s nice,’ I thought.
This playful and boyish act of sincerity seemed fitting for the night in store as there’s something of the fourteen-year-old boy about Chad VanGaalen. Deceptively awkward and immediately charming, he’ll break your heart.
Together with a hairy-faced accordionist he delivered a homemade and reflective sound. It was as if we had wandered into his basement, and he seemed a little surprised to see us there.
His hesitancy on stage draws you nearer, and his tight and masterful song-writing capabilities took a hold of my senses like a sedative.
That uneasy fluidity reminded me of Beach House and the unexpectedly punchier tunes provided an excitable energy that twanged some of those moustaches.
Listening to Chad is like putting on a pair of earmuffs and skate boarding down smooth suburban streets.
There’s a yearning to be free and limitless but it only slightly ventures out of the comfortable. A girl behind me whispered excitedly ‘It’s the kind of music I’d ride my bike to.’
It is difficult for any set at the Borderline to not feel intimate and Chad VanGaalen’s was by no means revolutionary.
But the evening was all together thoughtful and enchanting, and as I braved the bitter London streets once more, the words of Electric City wrapped me up like a duvet.

Soft Airplane is available on Flemish Eye.

Photographs by Ro Cemm
for more pictures of the night click here

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At 8am on Friday 28th November on a wet and grizzly morning, stuff the Greenwash Guerillas and a band of allies rallied together outside the E-On Head Office at 100 Pall Mall. We were there to protest against the planned government-approved scheme to build 7 new coal fired power stations. E-on will be responsible for the first of these havoc wreaking death chambers (no hyperbole here) at Kingsnorth, Kent. This power station alone will emit between 6 and 8 million tones of CO2 every year. If all 7 are built, treatment their collective emissions would be approximately 50 million tones of CO2 a year. This would make the Climate Change Committee’s proposal to cut back on CO2 emissions an average of 2% per annum so that by 2050 we’ll have an 80% reduction well… impossible.

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Browsing through E-on’s website, it might be easy to be fooled into thinking they are an environmentally conscientious company promoting ‘clean, green energy that never runs out.’ But it doesn’t take long to realize that their wind farms and claims of boosting local employment are cleverly marketed to cast a rosy sheen over more profitable projects that use coal.

Coal is the grimiest of fossil fuels. It’s carbon-intensity is higher than oil and double that of natural gas. Yet, as the driving force behind the industrial revolution, it has been the primary source of power for the electricity generation. Gathered outside the E-on head office, we are no longer in the 19th century but in the 21st century and in the midst of a climatic crisis. With sea ice disappearing at a never-before-seen rapidity now is the time to use new greener sources of power, not to revert to the practices of the past.

So why is the government supporting what seems a disastrously archaic project?
The government’s answer is that by increasing the cost of carbon, power stations will be forced to use a process of carbon capture and storage (CCS) whereby the harmful carbon dioxide produced by coal is extracted from the air and buried underground.
However, a presentation made by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee concluded that this reasoning is implausible. Voicing research from the U.K. Energy Research Centre and Climate Change Capital, it showed that using a process of CCS would in fact be the least cost effective option for power stations. The research they gathered predicted that CCS will cost power companies like E-On 70-100 or 90-155 Euros per ton of CO2, while the government estimates that the price of carbon between 2013 and 2020 will be less at approximately 39 Euros per ton.

It’s fair to say that it is extremely unlikely that power companies will go for the more expensive option, especially when the margin is as large as it is. In short, the government’s criteria for approving E- On’s power station at Kingsnorth is worryingly unsatisfactory.

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If our government is failing to alleviate the catastrophic predicament of climate change that is costing lives then it is up to us as citizens to take action against the construction of Kingsnorth and others like it. For more information on what you can do please click here and please go to the national climate march on Saturday 6th December, bring your mates and make it fun. This is a serious issue and we need to get the message across but optimism is always the best the way of creating change, in my view anyway.
Klimax is a network for climate activists that started in 2007 by environmentalists who wanted a platform for people with more radical ideas about direct actions. Well known in Sweden for their campaigns against private motorism and the meat industry, viagra sale the group has spread to a number of Swedish cities, cialis 40mg and in Gothenburg they consist of 20 active members.

On the 12th November 2008, capsule after being inspired by Climate Rush, six Klimax members stormed a municipal city council meeting in Gothenburg dressed as suffragettes to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the British Sufragette Action.

Members of Klimax initially wanted to protest on the 13th October, which is the actual date of the anniversary, but after finding out there were no meetings that day, postponed to the 12th November. This allowed them the much needed time to plan their action in detail; the first few weeks consisted of a few hours of planning and as the time drew nearer members were working five hours a day to make sure everything was finished. Among writing speeches, making banners and establishing contact with the media, they had to prepare their costumes!
Our contact at Klimax said “We do not always dress up for events but we believe that it is a good way to spice up an action! We sometimes dress up as penguins or polar bears because they are the two types of animal that are severely affected by Climate Change; it is also fun and looks nice!”

Their aims with the action was threefold; firstly to pay tribute to the work done by the suffragettes- strong women fighting for women’s right to vote, secondly to make the politicians aware that there was strong opposition to the building of another tunnel under the river in Gothenburg; Miahabo Berkelder from Klimax in Gothenberg says that the group believe this to be an awful way to spend a large amount of money, just so that more cars can be on the road; asking ‘What if the money was invested in buses instead? New roads simply lead to more traffic and that is a disaster for our climate.’
The third reason for the protest was to make sure that politicians knew that climate change isn’t just a moral topic, it is a political topic.

On the day, members were shocked to see the six activists storm the meeting,
but after the action Klimax joked that if they had been politicians sitting there during long and boring meetings, they would have been happy with the distraction!

They certainly created a buzz, and definitely caught the attention of the council! After a short while the six were asked to leave the building and did so with little fuss.
In reaction to the protest, a woman from the Swedish environmental party said Klimax had a valid point, but a man from the conservative party was more concerned about security, wondering what would have happened if terrorists had stormed the meeting instead!

The plans for the tunnel are still up in the air. The initial decision to build the tunnel was made solely by Göran Johansson, the chairman of the Municipal Council. Because this wasn’t a democratic way of deciding, the case has been reported to the county administrative court.

According to Miahabo, there are a lot of plans in Klimax’s future; new actions will take place during the spring and there will be a new regular event called Climate Café- where anyone can attend to share coffee and discuss climate change, sometimes including an expert on the subject to answer any questions.

The next big event for Klimax is on the Global Day of Action, taking place in cities all over the world on the 6th of December. At the same time as the leaders of the world will be discussing the climate problems, demonstrations will be arranged all over the world including London and of course Gothenberg.
Klimax have come together with several other groups to arrange a huge demonstration, Miahabo says that Klimax are organising a “Climate Clash” which is a wide spread Klimax phenomenon; they will walk out in the middle of a busy road and block the traffic; a perfect and simple way to make people aware of the climate problems.

Anyone who is interested in joining Klimax is welcome- it is a flat organization with no board of directors, anyone who wants to be a member is simply one.

This article was written with the help of Miahabo Berkelder of Klimax in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thank you for your contribution and for the photos!

For more information about Climate Rush, please visit: www.climaterush.co.uk
Monday 1st Dec
The Ashni Art Gallery specialises in Indian Art that is both contemporary and of the past. They will be exhibiting the best of their collection from now until the 19th of December.

Tuesday 2nd Dec
Live in Bristol? Feeling somewhat alarmed by the continued transformation of the city centre to all things consumerist (with 120 new shops having just opened)? Slipping between the gap of reality and fantasy, and Somewhere Here are hijacking advertisement space to provide shoppers with a brief respite during the fall of capitalism. Nine artists take nine advertising hoardings (billboards) until the 3rd of December only. Catch them before they are swallowed by Advertisement Beast.

Wednesday 3rd Dec
Opening today at the ICA: Dispersion; an exploration by seven artists of the appropriation and circulation of images in contemporary society. They examine money, desire, and power in our accelerated image economy. It runs until Feb 1st.

Thursday 4th Dec
First Thursdays of the month is here! But aren’t galleries open most Thursdays anyway? It would be silly tell you a single thing to go and see, 100 galleries will be opening their doors until 9pm, so there will plenty to satiate your creative appetites, but if you perhaps feel so inspired that you are driven to the pencil yourself, The Princess Studios will be hosting free life-drawing drop-in sessions throughout the evening.

Friday 5th Dec
Vauxhall’s best kept secret-art-laboratory, Beaconsfield, curates Late at Tate this Friday, adapting Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries and transitory places to create a terminal space, with an array of arrival and departure points, in which only the surreal applies …

Satuday 6th Dec
Colin McKenzie senses that art ought to be more like a day at Woodstock, or at least what he imagines Woodstock to be like: electric, dynamic, smooth, and mind-expanding. At the Red Gate Gallery. McKenzie strives against order and sense, aiming to manoeuvre without restriction.

Monday 1st December

The Lady: A Tribute to Sandy Denny, page Royal Festival Hall, treat London

An evening of songs from the back catalogue of one of the most influential female folk singers, approved Sandy Denny. Various artists including Marc Almond, P.P. Arnold and Johnny Flynn will be performing songs from her Fairport Convention days as well as her solo career. Should be a really interesting night in light of the current trend for new female folkies and a timely tribute to one of the godmothers of the genre.

Asobi Seksu, Hoxton Bar and Grill, London

Sweet, fun indie-pop from Brooklyn. Should be a good one for dancing.

Gallows, The Macbeth, London

Noisy punks celebrate collaboration with Atticus clothing range.

Slow Club, Jay Jay Pistolet and special guests, Union Chapel, London

A lovely gentle way to start the week with this folky-country duo who will hopefully be celebrating the first day of December with a performance of their Christmas single, released next week.

Tuesday 2nd December

Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed and the Trueloves, Oran Mor, Glasgow

Big-voiced retro soul.

Deerhoof, ULU, London

In the UK for one night only, this much-loved San Francisco band’s staccato, rough-round-the-edges punk pop is even better live.

Ten Kens, The Duchess, York

Anyone who has a blurry picture of people snogging on their record sleeve is a good bet for a messy live show and these Canadian grungers are reportedly no exception. Should be good in this small venue too.

Baby Dee, Union Chapel, London

New album produced by Will Oldham, harpist on Anthony and the Johnsons first album and with Andrew W.K. providing bass on her new record, this transsexual musician’s musical pedigree is assured.

Wednesday 3rd December

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis single launch, Madame JoJos, London

Snappily dressed, hearse-driving siblings playing rockabilly at their single launch party.

Liam Finn, Night and Day, Manchester

Introspective folk.

The Wave Pictures, Club Fandango, St Aloysius Social Club, London

Thursday 4th December

Vivian Girls, The Social, Nottingham

Uber-hyped Brooklyn girl group bring their shoe-gaze tinged grunge-pop to the UK. Time to see if they live up to their recorded promise as a live act.

The Unbending Trees, The Luminaire, London

Leonard Cohen-influenced Hungarians.

Dirtbombs, Faversham, Leeds

Fuzzed out rock and soul. Catch them before they play at the weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties.

Friday 5th December

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Princess Charlotte, Leicester

Fuzzy pop from yet another hip hyped Brooklyn band.

Dan Black, Barfly, London

New single ‘Yours’ has been receiving lots of radio play.

Saturday 6th December

Dead Kids, single launch ‘Into the Fire’, Push, Astoria 2

Should be pretty sweaty and heavy.

I Am Ghost, White Rabbit, Plymouth

Bringing some metal to the South West.

Under One Sky, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

John McCusker’s diverse folk composition.

Sunday 7th December

Tanlines, Old Blue Last, London

The Brooklyn invasion continues. Did they all club together and hijack a plane from JFK International?

Bon Iver, Victoria Apollo, Dublin

Really bummed about breaking up with some girl called Emma, he headed into the woods alone and wrote an album about it. He must be feeling a bit better as he’s spreading the heartache on a UK tour.

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Rock City, Nottingham

Lovely duets from surprisingly compatible artists.

Pretty Taxing is a fashion collection with a twist, stuff as the end product is not clothes but car tax discs. Unusual – yes, sick but we all know how important accessorising is…

It would seem like a bad idea if such creatively interesting designers hadn’t contributed to the cause. They include Emma Bell, who has twice shown at London Fashion Week, David David and Pam Hogg. Along with artists Natasha Law and Stuart Semple, they have all created unique collectable pieces of fashion memorabilia.

You can pick up these discs of fashion-random-brilliance at Matches or at the pop-up shop KIN in Kingly Court, Carnaby Street. Abiding the law has never looked so good.

Today I was sent to Coventry, abortion quite literally. Together with 30 other Climate Camp activists dressed as Santa we descended on E.On, health the energy company responsible for the proposed new coal fired power station to be built at Kingsnorth.

This action followed a 48 hour action that happened over last Friday and Saturday – and E.On were not expecting our return. In fact, buy they were probably kicking themselves that the special fencing that they had put in place late last week was now lying dismantled on the floor next to their headquarters.

As a result our merry busload hopped off easily and headed straight for the main entrance of E.On’s offices.

Why? Despite spending a lot of time and energy letting the public know that they are one of the biggest investors in renewable energy in the UK (they’ll point out the big array of solar panels on one of their buildings and the lobby features a looped tape about wind farms) they are also pitching to build the first new coal fired power station to be built in the UK in 30 years, which will alone defeat all our CO2 emissions goals. So why spend so unwisely?

Whilst some merry santas climbed atop the revolving door and superglued their hands to the various entrances, another bunch of santas headed off into the building to see if they could speak to head honcho Paul Golby and let the employees know a bit more about the facts behind new coal.

Bearing banners that said Stop Coal and E.On F.Off they set off down the corridors singing some specially adapted carol songs.

Two intrepid santas managed to enter a boardroom meeting, surprising the attendees with some gifts of lumps of coal – for as you know santa gives bad children coal instead of gifts and E.On has been very bad this year. They were ejected from the property, but soon raced back in again…

We managed to disrupt operations for four hours, stopping employees and visitors as they came to work and giving interviews to the BBC and ITV, and live on the radio. Our action was spoken about on the World at One on Radio 4, which you can listen to here. We are talked about at approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the programme.

The police were surprisingly even handed, although some employees were clearly fuming, especially the head of security (woops) One indoor santa even managed to locate a cup of tea and a newspaper to read.

At one point we were able to reenter the building, with the santas forming a conga line for the cameras. We delivered papers written by leading NGOs describing why there is no need for coal power, and generally had a merry old time. All employees and visitors were rerouted through back entrances, so I think it is fair to say that we were fairly disruptive…

Eventually we decided that once unstuck it was best that we leave, but the police had other ideas, and as we walked off down the road they tried to contain us, managing to trap four of our number and arrest them.

The rest of us ran off down the street to find our getaway vehicles, parked up in a local pub car park. Our drivers had thoughtfully bought us lunch in the pub, but shortly after we had gulped it down we were asked to leave because the police presence was putting off other customers. The police followed us as we left to pick up the other santas at Warwick university student union, and thereafter ensued the slowest police chase ever, with us managing to lose them after taking a wrong turn.

The purpose of this action was to embarrass E.On and raise awareness of what they up to in a light hearted and humourous way – I think that as a bunch of merry santas we did this exceptionally well. We hope that E.On will take heed and stop greenwashing their plans. It’s simple, don’t build Kingsnorth. Spend your money increasing investment in your (meagre) renewable energy supplies. If you would like to help us stop companies like E.On destroying our world check out what Climate Camp is up to next. More articles on this action can be read on Indymedia here and here.

Written by Amelia on Tuesday December 2nd, 2008 10:00 am

Categories ,activism, ,Climate Camp, ,Coal, ,E-On, ,Earth, ,Kingsnorth

Amelia’s Magazine | The Urban Green Fair

Jay-Z, price Coldplay and Girls Aloud in concert – that’s the closest analogy in recent times to the new Turner and the Masters exhibition at Tate Britain. There are so many greats in this revealing show that JMW Turner sometimes comes off the worst in the fistfights between complementary pictures hung side-by-side. Bursting with Rembrandts, viagra 40mg Canalettos and Titians, it gives a strong impression of how Turner felt in the world of art: in fierce competition with literally everyone who ever held a paintbrush.

It’s astounding from a modern perspective obsessed with originality to see how similar Turner’s works are in terms of style and composition to those of artists he admired. The Turner of this exhibition is constantly checking on what the person next to him is doing and trying to outdo them.

Turner was totally engaged with the artists who preceded him and those who were his contemporaries. An anecdote that reflects the artist’s temperament is that of the 1832 Royal Academy exhibition: during the “varnishing” time before the show opened to the public, Turner saw Constable’s riotous work “Opening of Waterloo Bridge” (above), which surges with colour, including bold reds. Turner went to his painting “Helvoetsluys” (below), a cool seascape – and added a tiny red buoy. Constable, now in possession of a painting that looked overblown in comparison, complained that “Turner has been here and fired a gun”.

The style of other artists seems utterly up for grabs to Turner. His most famous paintings are those of boats and he was deeply influenced by the painters Jacob van Ruisdael and William van de Velde the Younger, whose “A Rising Gale” (above) is the mirror image of Turner’s “Dutch Boats in a Gale”, though Turner’s work is a moodier, more threatening piece. It is in these scenes of the sea that Turner finds his best-loved topic, but he experimented in what seems like every other niche to get there. His effort to portray rural life in the style of Nicola Tournier falls a little flat and his suggestive style finds a more sympathetic subject in the beauty of nature than in the details of a busy Venetian scene, as shown in a work overpowered by its companion Canaletto.

Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery and although Turner’s antics come across as potentially rather aggravating to other artists, who he copies with the express intent of bettering, he clearly holds those he challenges in high regard. Knowing a little about his relatively humble background, the self-promotion starts to seem like an effort to belong to the establishment art scene of the time, as well as being in the tradition of honing one’s craft by homage. This approach is still in currency: the Arctic Monkeys started out as a Libertines cover band so perhaps things haven’t changed that much after all.

Turner clearly wanted to be considered in the canon of great artists and that wasn’t possible without entering through the doors of the Academy and working in the Grand Style they had designated the high status method of the time. However, he showed just as much interest in the small-scale works of continental artists, perhaps because of their commercial nature: they were more suited for people’s homes and so presumably sold more like hot-cakes than canvases several metres high and wide.

Even among the starry lineup of fellow painters, Turner’s talent shines. Before he hits his stride, the efforts are hit and miss but among them are jewels, which he rustles up from oils, watercolours and ink. The Turner voice is encapsulated by the raging water of “Snowstorm” (above): a swirl of foam, shadow and the suggested sails of a boat. Light and dark and the sense of natural power are more important than seeing the face of the sailor at the helm. This was my favourite work of the show because it is entirely Turner but doesn’t trample on Ruisdael or any other artist. It’s confident in itself – at last! – and movingly beautiful; it reminded me that there is a lot to learn at this exhibition about Turner the man, but also plenty to remind about Turner the artist.

Jay-Z, page Coldplay and Girls Aloud in concert – that’s the closest analogy in recent times to the new Turner and the Masters exhibition at Tate Britain. There are so many greats in this revealing show that JMW Turner sometimes comes off the worst in the fistfights between complementary pictures hung side-by-side. Bursting with Rembrandts, store Canalettos and Titians, pharm it gives a strong impression of how Turner felt in the world of art: in fierce competition with literally everyone who ever held a paintbrush.

The annual Urban Green Fair took place on Sunday the 20th at Brockwell Park with the mission to ‘Skill up for power down’, more about as environmental issues were placed firmly at the forefront.

The whole event was relaxed and laid-back, without the need for loud music and alcohol, but as a domain for independent issues definitely provided food for thought and a proactive energy. The positive and friendly ambience made it a great day out for the whole family, with a zone especially for the kids along with stalls detailing issues such as social justice, building technology and health and healing, there was something for everyone. With local food, jewellery and handmade delights it really showed a community coming together and the great things we can get from independent businesses rather than the giants we see on the high street making every parade a replication.

The Climate Camp had their own stall challenging misconceptions of global warming with a sheet of statements likely to be used to defend not taking action. They were then able to counteract it, to shake off the uncertainty and wavering some might have, and prove that action is vital.

The statement that caught my eye is that scientists only ever speak of a ‘possibility‘ surrounding climate change, and as a result we do not think we need to change our behaviour believing everything will resolve itself. Their answer is that scientists are never going to use words such as ‘definitely’ because for science, proof is a mathematical concept. Just because of scientist’s choice words, the implications already being seen cannot be ignored and it is up to us to balance the evidence.

The ‘speaker’s tent’ was a beacon for paving the way forward. One particular speaker from Rising Tide insisted that climate change should not to be thought of as an environmental issue, but an economical and political issue and why the general public need to have a voice at Copenhagen. It was suggested that a possible solution is food sovereignty, community controlled energy and the refusal of participating in the large economy. A carbon trading system was slammed as it does not work where it has been implemented because companies are able to estimate their own carbon use, consequently leading to an increase rather than decrease in emissions.

As Mark Thomas argued it was us who fought for change, at every stage it is us fighting for these rights, they are not just given to us, so we must fight again. Perhaps the next time this event takes place more progress will have been made, as at the heart of this enjoyable fair there is a serious cry for action before it is too late.

Written by Karen Hitt on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 5:45 pm

Categories ,Climate Camp, ,copenhagen, ,environment, ,global warming, ,kids, ,Mark Thomas, ,rising tide, ,scientists, ,Urban Green Fair

Amelia’s Magazine | Happy Birthday Grow Heathrow

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

Krystof Strozyna has been on my radar for what seems like forever in fashion… which in practice means a couple of years – ever since we wrote about him in the print version of Amelia’s Magazine, generic visit this shortly after his graduation from Central Saint Martins in 2007. Which makes it all the more annoying that we don’t receive proper tickets to his shows. I hate e-invites, information pills I really do. I always forget to print them out which usually means I forget to attend the show (I need tickets IN MY HANDS during LFW – there’s just too much to juggle otherwise) and they’re invariably no good for anything better than standing. Basically, viagra they just don’t cut it.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

Luckily my face is so well known around Fashion Scout that I can usually slide into any show with no problem. So it was that I got cajoled in to see Krystof Strozyna‘s A/W collection – well, it didn’t take much to be honest. Apparently Kimberly Walsh was there too, flying the flag for Girls Aloud during a rare break for Nicola Roberts. I can imagine her curves would suit his sexy 80s inspired draped tailoring a little better anyhow.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Matilde Sazio.

For the most part this collection did not disappoint, featuring tailored black and flesh tones combined with undulating shades of ruched blue chiffon. A little more awkward was a one legged dress – maybe a good idea in practice but somewhat inelegant on the catwalk.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

The winning numbers were undoubtedly Krystof Strozyna‘s gorgeous neon fractal prints, which brought a splash of welcome colour to the ubiquitous Little Black Dress… and a devastating punch delivered by the liberal use of acidic orange. Red may have been the favoured highlight of many an A/W collection but on the strength of this I’m voting for vibrant orange. Yum yum.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011. Photography by Amelia Gregory
Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Grow Heathrow by Rebecca Peacock.

Just over a year ago a group of my friends envisioned a radical new version of the Transition Town model. Activists drawn from groups such as Plane Stupid and Climate Camp decided to squat a rundown old market garden in the village of Sipson that was being used as a dumping ground for car scrap in an area planned for demolition to make way for the third runway at Heathrow. And thus Grow Heathrow was born, link a great big YES in the face of so many NOs.

We Won! Grow Heathrow by Sam Parr.

Over the course of the past year they have utterly transformed the area; growing their own food, stomach hosting bike workshops and ensuring a sustainable community has sprung up that fully involves the locals. What was once an eyesore covered in shattered glass has become an inspiring success story, described by one local as “better than prozac”. In this beautiful short video from You and I Films the misty eyed community get together to reminisce about the past year, describing how what they did was “naughty but extremely worthwhile” and a necessary action to enable the creation of their “own piece of paradise.” As is so often the case, gardening has proved the glue that has brought people together.

Later in March Grow Heathrow will host the Reclaim the Fields European gathering, and then a group of people associated with the project will go on an ambitious 100 day cycle ride to Palestine. P.E.D.A.L. will meet with permaculture projects along the way; sharing ideas and stories for a better world.

Inspiring stuff indeed, but I’ll let this lovely video – made to celebrate Grow Heathrow‘s first birthday – do the talking.

You can read more about Grow Heathrow in this blog, written just after it was set up in early 2010.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday March 1st, 2011 5:47 pm

Categories ,Climate Camp, ,community, ,Direct Action, ,Firecatcher, ,gardening, ,Grow Heathrow, ,heathrow, ,P.E.D.A.L., ,Palestine, ,Plane Stupid, ,Rebecca Peacock, ,Reclaim the Fields, ,Sam Parr, ,sipson, ,squatting, ,sustainability, ,Third Runway, ,Transition Heathrow, ,transition towns, ,You and I Films

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